Today I was up bright and early for one special reason; today is Holy Thursday. On this day we, the followers of the Christian Orthodox Church (not all), traditionally, get up at the crack of dawn and begin to dye our first red eggs.
The very first egg that comes out of the dye is said to be the "Holy Egg"; this egg is believed to be the guard of the house, and that egg sits in its own single-egg cup until the next year's Holy Thursday.
Interestingly enough, the Holy Egg does not rot. It sits there for one entire year and nothing happens to it. Every year, as soon as I replace the egg, I crack the old one to see if it has gone bad, and it never has. Isn't that amazing? That's food for thought.
So as soon as I was done with the red batch, I began to work on the more colorful ones!
I wanted to share with you a Dying Easter Eggs technique that is super easy and super-duper fun! I did this with my little one this morning, she's only one and a half years old, and it was one of the best times we have had together while working in the kitchen.
In the middle of a single napkin drop one drop of each food color (your choice of colors) in one spot.
Put the egg in the middle of that spot, roll it up in the napkin, rub it, then unroll it, and with your index finger placed underneath the colored spot on the napkin, start dabbing the colors around the egg – you will soon see a colorful, tie dye egg.
Once it's dry, put a dab of vegetable oil on a single napkin and just lightly brush it around the egg – this will give the egg a beautiful shine.
Interesting tradition with the red egg…I would be afraid to check after a year 🙂 They all look beautiful!
The eggs look so beautiful…very interesting about the first red egg though!
Such beautiful Holy Thursday red eggs! I can't wait to try the tie-dyed trick too. We don't have any little bitties in our house yet but that doesn't mean we don't make a big deal out of coloring eggs 🙂 Thanks for sharing, and have a lovely Easter!
Our special egg each year was dyed with onions and just turned brown. It seemed so cool then when all you could find in stores was the white eggs. Now it would pass for any in my fridge.
That's quite an awesome shade of red you got!
I love this tradition of dying red eggs…they are absolutely gorgeous!!!
I've never done this technique before, but it produces such colorful eggs! Sounds like you guys had a really fun time too!
There's a reason why those Holy Eggs never go bad, it's because they're blessed and they get their own egg throne! This looks like a fun activity you both enjoyed, thanks for sharing the technique.
Your photos are gorgeous! Great story and lovely tradition.
Although I'm Catholic, I'm used to celebrating Easter the Christian Orthodox way, so I was up dying eggs as well 🙂 Unfortunately, all of my colors were intense except for the red one — my first egg turned out rather pink. Oh well. Hopefully that won't affect the 1-yr period I have to keep it. Where do you keep yours? On a bookshelf, or in the fridge, or?
We did the same thing this morning 😉 the red eggs done, the Holy Egg in it's place 🙂 I'm also so amazed that the Holy Egg always stays as is after a year!
Great story, I remember the tradition well! Nicely done !
I love coloring eggs 🙂 I've never heard of the red egg tradition before…very interesting!
This is such a great idea! I love how the multi-colored eggs came out! Now as for your red egg… it never goes bad!? That's so weird yet very cool at the same time!
That's really pretty Kate. And it's magical that an egg can last for a year and not rot.
Wow I made some today and posting tomorrow. Your are so elegant and absolutely a work of art… I love these.. next time I am making them like this… I did the crackle style oh well you'll see, I just love these!
I've heard that about eggs not going bad!! I was always too afraid to give it a try though to find out. I think I'll take your word for it!
Love the ease of your egg dying, Liv will love this! I was not going to do eggs this year, but this simply looks too easy ( and fun!) to resist.
I just dyed eggs with my kiddos tonight. So much fun! 😉 Happy Easter Kate!
Great post Kate. As soon as I read the part that the egg sits in its own cup for a year I knew what was coming next…you cracking that egg to investigate what the year had done to it. LOL your so funny Kate, so curious. Thanks for sharing.
I am dying my Holy Thursday eggs very soon!!
Happy Easter to you and yours..
Your dyed eggs look beautiful. I've tried dying eyes once or twice and they never come out quite as well, but I'm definitely going to try out your tie dye method. Thanks for sharing!
Cute! I'd like to do some eggs this year. I wanna hop on the naturally dyed bandwagon.
Love this dying idea. Thanks too for the "Holy Egg" tidbit…..very interesting. May try that this year with my kiddos.